The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth eBook

“‘Not so much as a plug of tobacco!’
I would reply, contemplatively, as the crew commenced
putting out the few things we had entered at Her Majesty’s
Custom House. We had great regard for Her Majesty;
nor have I the least doubt of the Squire’s honesty,
which would have been all right had it not been for
the law and parliament. We have only to add that,
having played his part after the manner of a good Christian,
he would seek his way home, there to arrange an evening
prayer-meeting.

“But the beauty of the Squire’s nature,
as illustrated in his pious hatred of smuggling, or
otherwise defrauding Her Majesty, would shine out
bright on the day the Dash left on her return voyage.
I was sure of an invitation to breakfast with him
on that morning, and he was equally sure to paint
the purity of his conscience in such glowing colors
that it was difficult for me to maintain a serious
face. When we had eaten bread, and he had offered
up his prayer (in which he always remembered Her Majesty),
he would accompany me to the Dash, when, having got
on board, and cast off, he would mount the most prominent
place on the cap-sill, where the citizens assembled
could hear him, and cry out at the top of his voice:—­’Hornblower!
good-bye. One word more, Hornblower! Let
me entreat you not to smuggle a pennyworth for anybody.’
My reply always was that I would follow his advice
with christian strictness. Then he would modestly
finger that cravat so white, and fix in his face such
becoming dignity, that I thought his green glasses,
which I never liked, covered his eyes to great advantage.
’Remember what I have always endeavored to impress
on your mind,’ he would continue; ‘honesty
is the best policy—­it is!’ Just then
everybody would look at the Squire, while it was with
great effort I kept from my face a smile. I knew
honesty was the best policy; I knew it was the true
policy to all praiseworthy ends; but how could I help
contemplating the necessity of those preaching who
never practised it, seeing that the Squire was not
what he seemed, for he smuggled an hundred barrels
of flour for every one he paid duty upon. I had
also seen him pass sentence of imprisonment and fine
on the wretch who smuggled a demijohn of bad spirits,
when for him I had smuggled a thousand.

“Thanks to a more liberal commercial policy,
that has precluded the necessity for such scenes as
the Dash stealing her way into a river at night to
land her cargo of contraband goods. Those violations
of law, so prevalent a few years ago, have ceased;
and in the improved condition of the people we see
the result of a new and more liberal policy.
But a few years ago, that small craft, the Dash, alone
sought to establish what was considered a doubtful
trade with the port of Boston; now, some forty pursue
a profitable traffic with the State of Massachusetts,
which has annually brought to her in British bottoms
no less than 170,000 cords of Nova Scotia grown fire-wood.